


She Wouldn't Have Wanted This... And we don't, either.

by midas_touch_of_angst



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: I wrote this out like an hour after the episode, Memories, Parent-Child Relationship, Sad, let's see how this goes then, su spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 14:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10832730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midas_touch_of_angst/pseuds/midas_touch_of_angst
Summary: A look into the minds of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl at the end of "I Am My Mom".(Major Spoilers for the Stevenbomb!)





	She Wouldn't Have Wanted This... And we don't, either.

"I'm not my Dad. I'm my Mom. _I'm Rose Quartz_!"

With a small gasp, Aquamarine dropped her wand, releasing her hold on the Humans and Gem Fusion. Alexandrite unfused in the fall, causing Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl to crash into the water. 

None of them could believe what was happening.

"Steven?" Connie called, panic starting to rise in her voice, not sure what had gone wrong, not sure what Steven was trying to do.

Pearl, however, knew exactly what Steven was doing. She couldn't let him, he  _couldn't_ do this! It would be a Death Sentance. "No, don't!" she screamed, desperately waving her arms, as if she could reach him from the waves below. "Steven!"

"What are you  _doing_?" Amethyst asked. Maybe he didn't know what he was proposing. Maybe there was time to get him away from there!

Steven turned, to look down at the gems in the water. "I get it now." he said, with a purposeful tone, knowing full well these could be his last words to them. "I'm the only one who can stop what she started! I can stop all of it!"

* * *

 

At that moment, Pearl didn't see the boy who'd been lost in space with no hope of return. She saw the little baby who'd been crying for almost a half-hour. The gems were watching him while Greg was at work, and Garnet was on a mission, and nothing seemed to stop his tears. Amethyst's shapeshifting didn't even calm him down. She'd run off to find his rattle, and Pearl was sitting on the beach with the infant on a blanket. He'd started to roll off, into the sand. Pearl reached out and picked him up, not wanting to have to brush sand out of his hair.

It was then that the tears slowed. Pearl was about to put him down when she noticed the sudden silence. She looked down at the baby. The baby looked up at her. He giggled and tried to grab her nose, failing and instead getting a small fistfull of her hair. He was satisfied with this, feeling the strands beneath his fingers. Pearl's eyes flicked to the large gem in his navel; she couldn't help it, it was almost instinctual. She breathed in a little, trying to ignore the searing pain she felt whenever she saw it. She instead looked to his face, which was now beaming. He stared into her eyes, a smile spreading. "Paal!"

It wasn't a perfect pronunciation, sure, but it was close enough. She smiled down at him, blinking back tears. "Hello, Steven."

* * *

Amethyst didn't see the boy who was about to give himself up to the Diamonds to save his friends. She saw the toddler, racing around the beach to chase a seagull. He tripped and fell, missing the bird by inches as it flew into the air. He spat sand out of his mouth, disgusted, but brightened when he saw the seagull had left behind a feather. He picked it up and turned to the purple gem, who was sitting by the sea, letting the water lap at her feet.

Steven ran up to her, tripping over himself in his hurry. He sat next to her and placed the feather in her hair. Amethyst turned to look at him, and the feather promptly fell.

"Hold still." Steven said, grabbing the feather again and this time weaving it inbetween strands of hair. He then sat back, plopping onto the sand and grinning at his handiwork. "Whatchu you think?"

Amethyst looked into the water again, struggling to make out a reflection. "It's nice." she said, smiling a little. Truth be told, she wasn't in the mood for a makeover that day.

Steven giggled and grabbed Amethyst's hand. "Come on, Ame! Let's go play!"

"Uh, maybe not right now?" Amethyst said, but her protest was in vain. Steven started to drag her hand towards the ocean; he failed, of course, but Amethyst slowly went along with him anyway, not wanting to upset him. Steven laughed and started to splash around in the waves, moving his arms to spray water at Amethyst. Amethyst finally cracked a genuine smile as she got soaked; she immediately started to splash Steven, who was so overjoyed he barely noticed that all his clothes were completely soaked.

After a bit, Steven swam closer to Amethyst, grinning. "Having fun?"

Amethyst considered, surprised that her bad mood had started to lift. "Yeah."

"Good." Steven said, before sending another wave of water her way.

* * *

Garnet didn't see the boy who'd inherited a war. She remembered when he was six years old, strumming the ukelele in his Father's van, on top of his sleeping bag, too excited at the moment to sleep. He showed her a song he'd written, an instrumental piece that involved all the new chords he'd learned that week. All it took was a thumbs-up at the end of the song for his face to glow. "I wrote it for you, Garnet." he said, so happy for her approval. "I don't have words yet. What words do you like?"

Garnet thought. "Together."

"No, for the song!" Steven giggled.

"Why don't you write it?" Garnet said, placing her palm on his head and ruffling his hair. "You're better at words than I am."

Steven's eyes turned to stars, and he moved over to hug Garnet, dropping the ukelele to the floor. "Thanks, Garnet!"

"No problem." she said simply.

Steven looked up at her, thinking, before he said. "Do you have a song?"

"A song?"

"Yeah, one that you wrote." Steven yawned.

Garnet considered. "Yeah."

"Can I hear it?"

"Maybe later."

"Please?"

Garnet sighed, unable to resist those puppy eyes. "Alright."

Steven beamed, sliding into his sleeping bag and looking up at her with bright eyes.

" _Where did we go, what did we do? I think we made something entirely new..._ "

By the time she'd gotten to the end, Steven had fallen asleep. Garnet smiled and patted his hair again. He seemed so small, so innocent, so peaceful. Garnet promised herself that she'd never let anything happen to him.

* * *

 

"You're wrong!" Garnet yelled, in as much of a panic as the others, trying to pretend they weren't in a hopeless situation, remembering only the boy who'd jumped down from the ceiling and bounced on her hair. "Steven,  _get down here_!"

"She wouldn't have wanted this." Steven said. "But I do."

"I'm gonna kick your butt if you don't come down here right now!" Amethyst tried to sound tough and angry, but her voice broke, thinking of the little boy who'd cheered when she threw chaaaps into the air for the birds.

Steven simply stared at them and turned to head into the ship.

Pearl realized there was no changing his mind. Slowly, she put her hands to her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "Steven..." she whispered, thinking of the boy who'd tried to dance with her only to fall down every time.

Connie started to scream, too. "No! Don't you  _dare_!"

As the ship's door closed, Steven turned to look at them all, one last time. He said his next words as a whisper, only just loud enough for them to hear him.

"I love you."

Connie continued to scream, to protest, begging him to stop, as the ship flew off into space.

It took the Gems' son with it.


End file.
